Nothing is Wrong, Odean Pope and Khan Jamal Quartet (CIMP 294)

Two Dreams, Odean Pope Quartet (CIMP 303)

The Mystery of Prince Lasha, Prince Lasha and the Odean Pope Trio (CIMP 330)

He was born in the South Carolina town of Ninety Six in 1938, but moved to Philadelphia as a boy with his family, where the powerful Philly-born pianist Ray Bryant tutored him on the saxophone.

Odean Pope grew to saxophone maturity with the genius sounds of John Coltrane all around him, and Bryant introduced him to the pioneer bop drummer Max Roach, who liked what he heard and took him on tour to Europe in the late ’60s, thus beginning a jazz partnership that was to last for decades.

In 1977 Pope formed the highly original Saxophone Choir, comprising nine horns, two basses, piano and drums, recording albums like The Saxophone Shop and The Ponderer on the Italian Soul Note label.

Since 1996 Pope has made a series of albums for the CIMP label, the recordings made in the very special acoustic confines of the Spirit Room in Rossie, rural New York state.

Nothing is Wrong, the second of these albums, brought Pope together with vibraphonist Khan Jamal, born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1946, bassist Arthur Harper and drummer Allen Nelson.

Pope and Jamal create diverse harmonies. In Almost Like Me Part II, Pope’s rumbling tenor creates a beauteous contradiction with the vibesman’s sprinkling notes, every one a joy following a stroke he had suffered the year before, and the duo’s comradeship with Nelson and Harper, all Philly veterans, radiates through all the tracks as if they were quadruplets of sound.

In the title tune, Pope’s rampaging horn has a fierce colloquy with Nelson’s drums and the simple riffing theme of Three gives Jamal a long, testifying discourse.

The acoustic delight of recording in such blithe surroundings is celebrated in the two takes of The Spirit Room, with Harper, who has laid down the pulse for eminences from JJ Johnson to Shirley Scott and Wes Montgomery and who first played with Pope in 1957, in prime and delving form. Jamal’s vibes truly go to town on his Afro-Cuban rhythmic beano The Rhythm Thang.

Pope was back in the Rossie jazz oasis in January 2004 with the alto saxophonist Carl Grubbs, born in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1944, in another reunion of horn compadres with two Pope regulars, bassist Tyrone Brown (another Roach alumnus) and drummer Craig McIver.

As they start off in full joint horn palaver on the opener Turn Me Loose, it is as if they have been gagging to play together for years, with Grubbs in particular as hot as it takes.

The Foliage is inspired by the trees changing with the seasons from summer to autumn with Pope in deep reflection and Quick is exactly that, both horns combustive and fiery.

Seed of the Land has a Spanish flair, inspired by a stay in Madrid, and in Fifth House, Brown’s opening solo spurs the horns and urges them onwards with Pope’s AnDar, a moving tribute to his family.

All members are roused for Lines for Four, 12 minutes of blues in unity.

In 2005, Pope found unexpected concord with another horn from the past, the acclaimed alto saxophonist and flautist Prince Lasha, born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1929, whose recordings with fellow altoist Sonny Simmons (The Cry of 1962 and Firebirds of 1967) have become legendary.

The Mystery of Prince Lasha, with Brown and McIver again, rediscovered Lasha after some four decades.

Listen to Lasha’s astonishing calypso-based tribute to his Fort Worth “classmate” Ornette Colman, the wittily named Coleman, Captain Hornblower, with Prince’s sparkling runs and Pope’s more sedate response, or his flute homage to Eric Dolphy.

There is a deep blues-baked sadness to Many, Many, Many, Many, Many Miles Away from both hornmen and Brown’s pulsating bass, and their two saxophones, soprano and tenor, blow an expressive confab all through Selmer.

Pope’s saxophone spirit lives and thrives on company and oneness with his contemporaries.

These three albums express a unifying life force that runs through the very heartsblood of jazz.